Bae Yong Joon 배용준

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(Trans.) Interview with Director Hur Jinho in 'Kinema Junpo' October issue, 2005Translated and posted by Myonne

Myonne wrote :

Hi, again, quilt sis & bros,

I got 'BROKORE ; Asia Tour Note' this morning, where I find BYJ really wishes to have a good success (in true meaning) in Asia. So, one thing I can do is thus to introduce goodness of 'April Snow' form Japanese magazine, and another thing is just disregard negative news. Aja! Fighting! Yongjoon! I love AS!

"Wae Chul" , the original title, has a meaning of "going out of one's everyday" "going out of one's life" besides the so-called "Going-out"

Director Hur Jinho depicted the subtlety of love serenely with rich poetic sentiment in the previous two films. In his new film "April Snow", however, he challenged a different expression from the formers by casting the two stars representative in Asia, Bae Yongjoon and Son Yejin. The camera approaches the characters so close that there seems no room on the screen. Moreover, only either of the two persons projected on the screen are focused on clearly enough. It is as if projecting their unstable feelings of an extramarital affair.

"In my previous works, there existed persons in the background. This time, however, I wanted to be much closer to the characters. Therefore, I adopted close-up shots abundantly. As for the people surrounding them whom I used to depict meticulously, I eliminated as mostly as possible. Until the previous work, they were necessary to live with the characters in order to depict their daily life. But, this time I wanted to depict ¡® the two persons who went out¡¯ in an unfamiliar place as if they were the man and woman left in an deserted island"

There appear respective spouses in a coma and Insoo's father-in-law in the film, but they are solely the existences for making us recognize that the two persons' love is an adultery.

"The camera caught them objectively from the two viewpoints. Adultery and romance, beauty and ugliness. When the two enter a hotel hand in hand in the daytime, the figures are in the very adultery. But the figures who touch their bodies each other are in nothing other than a beautiful romance."

Bae Yongjoon plays a lighting director, Insoo.

"I started the previous work with determining the occupation of the character first, but for "April Snow" I had a talk with Bae Yongjoon first and then tried to search for the occupation. The point is what can express the strength and sensitiveness which he has in him at the same time. Then, a lighting engineer occurred to me. It is the occupation which requires the corporal strength to carry heavy equipments, and at the same time, the sensitiveness to deal with light."

Light and shadow, brightness and vanity after the concert; a lighting engineer is very effective for contrasting such things. Insoo is a very ordinary man" , which is quite different from the images Bae Yongjoon has recently played. However, he is a little different from the passive men who had appeared in Hur Jinh's world so far.

"That's not what I had intended. In my case, I do not direct according to the script, but set up the direction on the shooting site. Then, I guess, the nature and character he has seems to have appeared of itself."

Romance or Adultery? Contradictions in love

Though he became well known for a director of on-site principle among the Yon-sama fans by the frequent remarks of Bae Yongjoon, he is never a capricious director. This time, with prepared contes his production staff understudied for the actors for the next day shooting plan, and the filming director, Lee Moge, took pictures on video beforehand, with which he reexamined the scenario, and then did the actual shooting.On the day of shooting, however, he explained nothing but the situation. And he patiently waited for a brilliant moment which the actors would emit by themselves.

"We started with the setup that Insoo is a man whose body and mind are healthy and has never thought of an extramarital affair even once. And once we actually began shooting, the healthy aspect of Bea Yongjoon himself has been reflected upon Insoo. Insoo, even in such a difficult situation, does not consult with anyone, gives vent his stress by singing alone, and diligently nurses his wife who betrayed him. These are the very parts of Insoo that he and I would like to depict in common."

Meanwhile, "A jewel in Korea", Son Yejin, transforming herself from the image of pure or ephemeral in the past, wonderfully performed the role of a housewife which she has never experienced.

"I had an image of a gir in Son Yejin. But when I met her, I found she actually has an aspect of a matured woman. Seoyoung, who married young, has young innocence, and at the same time shows a housewifely face at an unexpected moment. I think I successfully employed her vividness, abruptness, and female-likeness in the film."

In the latter half of the film, after having an affair in bed, the feelings of the two becomes more and more complicated. The consummation of love is the beginning of adultery. When they are in Insoo's room, his father-in-law abruptly visits him. Insoo ushers Seoyoung into the bathroom in a hurry. The scene where Insoo who once came out of the room returns and embraces Seoyoung, in a sense, moves our hearts more shakenly than the bedroom scene.

"It is a romance for them, but it is the very spot of an extramarital affair as well. Becoming aware of it, the two are going to face it. The tight-hug and consideration of 'Are you alright?' of Insoo is nothng but love, for sure. I personally like that scene. For, it shows the contraction of love affair quite well."

Will they become happy in future?

"'"Where will we go?' 'Where would you like to go?' These lines suggest the way of the two persons going before them in the future. The conclusion may differ from person to person who watches the film. I myself wish that they would go on the way to happiness."

The Korean actor, Bae Yong Joon [Bae], who shot to stardom in Asia, from his “Hotelier” and “Winter Sonata” works was in town for 3 days last week as part of the three-day publicity campaign for his maiden movie debut, “The Untold Scandal”.

The bespectacled Bae has typically been cast as the perfect gentleman, always polite, always respectable. This time around, he challenged this stereotype, breaking new ground in his acting career. In this period movie, Bae transformed himself into a philandering scholar who enjoys the joy of the flesh, immersing himself perennially in lust and physical pleasure.

Questions abound amidst his fans, the public and naturally, the media, who started to fire questions at him, “You’ve always acted as the perfect gentleman, how did you manage to shed this image and take on the challenge of this role as a flirtatious scholar? Were you terribly embarrassed in the intimate scenes in the movie? Was it very difficult or awkward to shoot those scenes...?”

Perhaps the bespectacled person is not Bae, it’s you – the fan.

Let’s remove our tinted lenses and read the man as he really is, not what we’d imagined or even wished him to be. Otherwise, Bae will have to sigh and lament, “I do not wish to be taken as a nerdy guy or a fool.”

Bae Is No Fool

To an adult, enjoying pleasure between the sheets is really something of a basic human instinct. But it is us, so used to seeing him with his glasses, his aristocratic air, his gentlemanly manner, that we sometimes forget that Bae, too, is human. He is as real as the rest of us, of flesh and blood, with the very same desires and cravings as the next man. He, too, has a flirt in him. He was unreserved about making this admission.

Despite the extremely short interview time of about 10 minutes, he made his point:“Frankly, I don't think spending 10,20 hours shooting the bedroom scenes was a terribly long time. If you'd compare to shooting other scenes, it’s actually quite common to use up entire rolls of film! I really really wanted to have a breakthrough this time, so I spent much effort to portray the role well. I wanted the audience to feel the change, the transformation. Basically, it wasn’t more difficult shooting the bedroom scenes, neither were there any surprising or unusual events that happened during the shooting. I do not wish for outsiders to think that I’m a fool, or that I cannot handle intimate scenes. In all honesty, all men have a flirt in them, me included.”

They Light up my Life

But not all flirts can touch woman’s heart, Bae is an exception. Let’s just look at his recent visits to first Taiwan, then Singapore and now Hong Kong, he managed to stir up thousands and thousands of female fans to follow him anywhere and everywhere he went! I can still remember an entertainment publication writing about a 70-something female fan who proclaimed “Bae Yong Joon lights up my life!” To the younger folks, this may seem a wee bit mushy and hard to swallow;however, to the women who spend their days taking care of mundane household chores, the wonderful sight of Bae certainly is something that they truly look forward to.

The most commendable thing is that Bae, too, reciprocates the love. He feels a lot for his fans. It’s no wonder his female fans would drag along their spouses and children just to jostle amongst the throngs of fans to catch a glimpse of their idol.

“You’re asking me who lights up my life? I can only say I see my fans as my family. They’re as important to me as life itself. If I just pick one person, it’s not fair to the rest of them. Because they’re just like my family, they stand by me, guarding and protecting me. They give meaning to my very existence, this is very gratifying to me and it propels me to achieve more in my acting career.”

Learning Chinese Wushu

Bae has been in this industry for more than a decade, and he’s known for his extremely low profile. In this business where publicity, whether good or bad, prevails, it’s certainly his quiet strength, unwavering determination and hard work that has brought him thus far.

Back in 1999, after completing “Have We Really Loved”, he felt that his career had reached a bottleneck, not advancing forward. He chose to leave the entertainment circle for two years and went away to upgrade himself.

He made a comeback in “Hotelier” in 2001 and shone brightly in the role of a man who’s deeply in love. Thereafter, his role in “Winter Sonata” scaled even greater heights, capturing hearts not just in Korea, but helped him open new markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and many more other countries.

As for his movie debut, the film “The Untold Scandal” also scored big to become the top three grossing movies in Korea. He also won the prestigious Green Dragon Best Male Newcomer award last year. He reached a new high in his career and the attention besotted upon him was unparalleled.

Bae is known to be someone who never forgets a favour, he’s someone who will remember his origins, his past and who’s helped him before; and this could possibly be one of the reasons why he’s so popular. When asked aside from work, what else he would like to do, he also had his supporters in mind.

“During this Asian tour, I’ve witnessed how supportive my fans are. My family [he likes to address his fans as family] wants so much to meet with me,to communicate with me. It’s unfortunate that I can speak only Korean, so when I return home, I will learn English and Mandarin. I hope to be able to communicate with them directly when I meet them again! I also want to learn Chinese wushu!”

[trans] Bae YongJoon's colleage life that the professor told ustranslated and posted by soil/water in BYJ's Quilt

Professor Ahn SangHeok said like followings:

because he looked very tired in the interview for college examination,I asked him "Are you in shooting these days?"He answered, "No, I'm not. But I couldn't sleep sound,thinking over what I can talk in the interview."I thought that he is frank, and sincere.

He said that the impression of Bae YongJoon was like a poet;His language was not decorative, elaborate, butseemed to flow from his heart.

In his class there were around 40 students.At first the other students were shy to speak to himwho always wore unnoticeable clothes with a cap deeply on.But Bae YongJoon who was much older than them was actively involved with them and increased his friends.

In class trip, once we happened to watch <Hotelier>in a hotel, while we were watching TV.At the scene of his speaking English, he stood in front of the TV, saying "Don¡¯t watch this." (laugh)

When he was busy with his schedule to be late in a class party.he used to treat all the classmates. He was very considerate.(from the Professor Ahn)

- written after attending the April Snow Superlive concert in Yonsei University, Seoul, April 2005.

bb: honestly, although this passage merely touched on that concert,but i do think it's a reflection of his daily life [when his schedule is open, like during the shooting of AS].it's actually quite sad that he can't be as free as he wanna be.

for instance, the pusan international film fest,he had to skip it for fear that if he went, his fans would 'invade' the placeand this would not only cause trouble for the organizers in terms of order and security,it might be alittle awkward for other actors.if not managed well, he might even be saddled with the blame of being a conceited big-head,or other people from the industry might not like the attention he's drawing away from themselves,so... best if he skipped it.but it's so sad, right?

i've always wondered... surely it ain't easy being a public figure, especially one who is as wildly famous as yong joon is now. thinking back to the april snow superlive concert held at yonsei university in april...

on the day of the rehearsal, nearly everyone present was yong joon's fan. mind you, that day was a work day for him. yes, whilst we all gathered to watch him to our hearts' content, he was actually at work. filming was supposed to carry on that day

being a public figure is burdensome enough. but can you imagine what it feels like to carry on with your work with not just your co-workers looking on, but a few thousand people watching you as well?

i cannot even start to imagine. of course, some of you will argue that he's an actor and being a professional, he should be able to carry on with his work regardless of whether anyone's watching.

that's just bull.

anyone, and i believe everyone will feel the pressure when you have to work with so many pairs of eyes on you, watching your every move.

as if the rehearsal's not bad enough, there's still the actual concert. although the overseas fans were not encouraged to attend the concert, wild horses couldn't keep us away. so yes, many many yong joon fans managed to get tickets for the actual concert too. really, the level of stress he has to manage within himself, the very thought of it is mind-boggling....

humour me, just think about it.... he's working that day, filming quite possibly a rather important scene in the movie. and it was a live concert organised with much resources and involving some of the hottest singers in korea. no matter what, they had to wrap up the necessary scenes that night, because it would have been near impossible to put together another live concert of that scale just to do a re-shoot. so, that night yong joon had to be the professional and proficient actor that he is, he also had to deal with lots of other things.

such as behaving in a manner that would please all parties. allow me to elaborate.

if he merely concentrated on his acting and ignored all the fans who turned up at the concert to support him, then fans'd probably go home from the concert feeling neglected, unappreciated. so paying too little attention to the fans present was not quite the right thing to do.

but if he paid too much attention to the fans, then it would probably affect his acting. and it would be diastrous too. in that particular scene, the audience was supposedly to be the "extras" in the movie, we're really captured into the movie as the real audience for that concert. so if he paid too much attention to us by turning around to wave or smile too much, then our eyes would be on him all the time watching for him to turn towards us again. but we're supposed to be watching the concert and giving the right responses so that we were captured as normal concert-goers behaving "normally"! surely the concert could not have more than half of the audience perpetually cranking their heads to check on the ultra-dashing lighting director! so paying too much attention to the fans present was also not quite the right thing to do.

no matter how small his movement was, a slight turn of his head would set the fans off screaming... so he really had to control and restrict his movements quite a bit. because if he so slightly as to just turn in a single direction, the fans sitting in that particular direction would go crazy and start screaming like mad. believe me that was what happened, i was there.and that would be utterly disrespectful to the performers on-stage during that time.so whenever he felt like turning or doing anything that would draw attention to himself, he had to remain sensitive to the other performing artistes. so he also had to be sure that his behaviour was appropriate and also perceived as being respectful to the other artistes.

and don't forget, the media was also there. and not just the korean media, also the overseas journalists, like from japan and singapore.

he just could not afford to slip, to make a single mistake.

all eyes, literally all eyes were on him.

i don't know... if i put myself in his shoes, i think i wouldn't have lasted in showbiz as long as he did. the sheer pressure of having someone watching you all the time, the media, the fans, the public... it must be hell. it would take more than just love for the arts,more than just passion for acting to pull through for so long. here's probably a man with loads of self-discipine, tonnes of patience, a genuine affection for his fans and a willpower made of pure steel. it's like you can't let down your guard at all, it's like you have to wear a mask, or have your public persona "on" perpetually. i would imagine he would only really relax when he's at home alone, or when he's with his family and close friends.

it's kindda strange actually. yong joon must be one of the most "closely-watched" stars in asia. he's always surrounded by many people, yet i suspect he's also one of the loneliest men around, and despite all the wealth, all the love his fans shower upon him, he's missing the very element that makes most of us happy - the freedom to go where we want to go, the freedom to do what we want to do, the freedom to act in our most natural selves.

for instance, the pusan international film fest,he had to skip it for fear that if he went, his fans would 'invade' the placeand this would not only cause trouble for the organizers in terms of order and security,it might be alittle awkward for other actors.if not managed well, he might even be saddled with the blame of being a conceited big-head,or other people from the industry might not like the attention he's drawing away from themselves,so... best if he skipped it.but it's so sad, right?

hi bb, thank you so much for posting all those wonderful articles that you translated. as you very well know i love reading each and everyone of them. i miss our man and it would have been great if he attended PIFF. Frances and I were actually chatting about PIFF. Had Yong Joon been there i'm pretty sure he'll be again one of the most photograph actor around and that photos of him will even be in the japanese and chinese portals.

it's kindda strange actually. yong joon must be one of the most "closely-watched" stars in asia. he's always surrounded by many people, yet i suspect he's also one of the loneliest men around, and despite all the wealth, all the love his fans shower upon him, he's missing the very element that makes most of us happy - the freedom to go where we want to go, the freedom to do what we want to do, the freedom to act in our most natural selves.

yong joon, all eyes are on you. it ain't easy, is it?- first posted in www.happiebb.blogspot.com

thanks bb for reposting your article in the thread.

it seems that whatever little freedom he is enjoying is slowly being taken away from him. i remember that recent interview he had where he said that there are only 3 places he frequents - his home, BOF office and the fitness gym. i dont know how he can stand this !! for a young and active man, this must be sooo hard but his options are getting slimmer as becomes more popular.

it really aint easy and i do hope yong joon will have more time for himself and enjoy the simple little things in life that ordinary ppl like us tend to take for granted......

hi bb, thank you so much for posting all those wonderful articles that you translated. as you very well know i love reading each and everyone of them. i miss our man and it would have been great if he attended PIFF. Frances and I were actually chatting about PIFF. Had Yong Joon been there i'm pretty sure he'll be again one of the most photograph actor around and that photos of him will even be in the japanese and chinese portals.

hey Liezle , i'm also officially missing Yong Joon but i'm glad he is not in Pusan....he need to take some time away from the limelight after getting so much media exposure during the AS promo...

Below photos are the inside of BOF office, I just not sure which BOF office. BOF offices have been a "tourist attraction" as well. Many of our members in this thread were able to visit BOF when they toured Korea.

Got this from the Drama Section Rules (i omitted the rest) which i believe applies to ALL THREADS.

General Soompi Rules

1. no profanity2. no racist or otherwise hateful messages3. no sexually explicit material4. show respect to and for the other members' different views5. signature rules!!!

Conduct in threads

+No convoing. I noticed this is a trend especially in the actor/actress threads. If you want to convo, thereis always the PM function. Warnings WILL be issued.

+No Spamming in threads.What constitutes Spamming?-Posting to bump up the thread-Convo-ing with other forumers-Postings that generally have no relevance to the topic

+No posts that have no value to the thread. eg. "I wish they'd get together, they have great chemistry!" is fine, to a certain extent but "oh did you see that picture where his arm is around her and her smile isso radiant! I bet she's really enjoying his arm around her and so they're dating in secret" is NOT OKAY.Useless speculation is not needed when the rest of the forumers are trying to find out what the drama(or whatever) is about.

i hope everyone will abide these rules (especially the spamming). otherwise "you get no sympathy from the mods when you come running when they issue warnings based on the above"

okay, here's abit of 'history'...bof's first office was the little two-storey building, [the nanhyun-dong address]you know, with the sunny parasols and all...? refer to the second picture pls...then i think they either found it too 'open' and fans were visiting a tad too often,or that the bof team has expanded so much that the old place couldn't accommodate them all,i suspect it's both...

so, a couple of months back, they've moved the administration to a 'real' office,that's the first address, and the pictures you've posted....they're on level 4 at this new building... that comes complete with security on the ground floor,the security would not allow anyone to go up with clearance or authority from bof...

as for the nanhyun-dong two-storey building,think it's been converted into a display/exhibition place.not sure what they're gonna be displaying though... probably yong joon-related stuff...

hey liezle,the pics you've posted are from the first address... the cheongdam-dong one...

thanks bb for the brief" "history". Yeah i do remember the parasol. I remember seeing photos of joon's family in front of it posted in your website I guess the new office is not for fans to visit then. I do hope that fans can still visit the old one. Place to go when in korea...BOF and Tea Loft

btw, just read your new post in Quilt. First time i read the sharing. I missed reading that one.